REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 141 



I showed the larva I got in Washington County to both Buck and Gilbert, and they 

 thought it might be the same that they had seen in their sections, except that Mr. G. 

 thought his worms were more positively green in color. He said it was characteristic 

 of them to work first at the top of the tree, as I had observed in Washington County. 

 Mr. G. is secretary Maine Board of Agriculture. It looks as though our hackmatack 

 forests might be totally destroyed by this insect. 



I inclose some clippings from the Home Farm referring to this insect. 



I also send you some terminal shoots of white pine, in which you may find living 

 specimens of a borer in three stages ; I suppose it is Pissodes strobi. In one grove|of 

 white pine on my farm it has taken 10 per cent, of the leading shoots. 



CHARLES G. ATKINS. 



GRAND LAKE STREAM, ME., February 27, 1883. 



In September, after receiving your request to send the cocoons to Providence, I ex- 

 amined them (hurriedly), and finding some defective ones concluded the whole lot was 

 worthless. I went out once afterwards to get some more, but did not find them. I 

 now think the cocoons I had were mostly sound in September or October, and possibly 

 may be now, but my keeping them dry and generally warm all this time may have de- 

 stroyed their vitality. Such as they are I mail them to you herewith. 



I learned from E. C. Smith, of New Sharon, Franklin County, that the worm in 

 question infested the hackmatacks in that town last year. Also from Z. A. Gilbert, 

 Secretary Board Agriculture, that in August, 1882, he made a trip to Aroostook County, 

 and, my inquiries having called his attention to the matter, he looked for indications 

 of the presence of the hackmatack worm and saw none. He was acquainted with 

 them at home in Androscoggin County. 

 Very truly yours, 



CHAS. G. ATKINS. 



The hackmatacks in the region near to and south and southeast of the 

 Kangeley lakes, and near Phillips, Me., were also defoliated in the early 

 part of the summer of 1882, as we have been informed by Dr. H. G. 

 Miller, of Providence, E. I., who went to the lakes in August. 



In the summer of 1883, we found the females laying eggs, and young 

 hatched out late in June and early in July, from Brunswick to Phillips, 

 about Lake Umbagog, especially at Errol, N. H., and by the middle and 

 last of July the trees were nearly stripped of their leaves throughout 

 Maine, and many trees were fatally injured. 



Its ravages in Neio Hampshire. In Franconia, as we have been in- 

 formed by Prof. W. W. Bailey, of Brown University, Providence, the hack- 

 matacks were stripped of their leaves about the middle of July, 1882 ; 

 the smaller trees suffering most. The trees were observed by him August 

 10. We noticed at Errol, on Umbagog Lake, numerous trees which had 

 been killed by the worms, and from the number of worms seen July 4th 

 do not doubt that many trees in that section were at least partly stripped 

 a week or two later. 



Its appearance, in Massachusetts. We learn from Mr. Andrew Nichols 

 that the European larches were, in 1882, attacked by " worms " in the 

 vicinity of Danvers, Mass. In July, 1883, the worms abounded on the 

 same trees, specimens being sent us by Mr. Nichols. We observed worms 

 at work in July, 1883, on the European larch at Lawrence, Mass., and 

 they were also destructive at Danvers. Mass. Prof. C. S. Sargent, di- 

 rector of the Arnold Arboretum, Brookline, Mass., and special agent of 

 the*United States Census, Forestry Division, writes us as follows : 



I have not heard of any injury to our native hackmatacks. Three or four years ago, 

 however, I noticed that specimens of the European larch in this immediate neigh- 

 borhood were suffering from the attacks of a larva, which I gathered and submitted 

 to Dr. Hagen. I inclose his note upon the subject. 



A copy of Professor Hagen's letter is here inserted : 



[MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY, 

 Cambridge, Mass., July 7, 1881. 

 The larrae belong to the Teuthredinidae (Hymenoptera), to Nematus erichsonii Hart, 

 the Canadian Entomologist, Vol. XIII, No. 2, p. 37, 1881, I have given a short no- 



